João Gonçalves Zarco
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João Gonçalves Zarco (c. Leça da Palmeira (or Tomar) 1390-1467, Funchal), pron. IPA: [ʒu'ɐ̃ũ gõ'saɫvɨʃ 'zaɾku], was a Portuguese navigator and explorer who discovered the Madeira Islands.
Zarko was nobleman, same argue of Jewish converso origin[1]. He was on service of Prince Henry the Navigator's house, he led the fleet that discovered the island of Porto Santo (1419) and afterwards the island of Madeira (1420). He was granted, as hereditary fief (Capitania), half the island of Madeira. Also, together with his fellow fleet commanders, Tristão Vaz Teixeira and Bartolomeu Perestrelo, he started the colonization of the islands in 1425. In the quality of noble of Prince Henry the Navigator's house participate in the failure siege of Tangier, where is armed knight, in 1437. The date of death of João Gonçalves Zarco is uncertain, but consider who have occur in 1467.
A statue of Zarco stands on the Avenida Arriaga, one the main streets in the Madeiran capital of Funchal.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Isabel Violante Pereira, "De Mendo da Guarda a D. Manuel I," Lisbon: Livros Horizonte, 2001, p. 83.
